A DELEGATION of key figures from business and politics will gather in Manchester today to exchange ideas on innovation.

Chancellor Gordon Brown will open the Department for Trade and Industry conference with a keynote speech via a satellite link up from China.

Science minister Lord Sainsbury will also address the 200-strong audience at the Manchester Conference Centre, Sackville Street, on how the United Kingdom can compete in the global market.

Other notable speakers at the event include the chairman of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Bryan Gray, and Dr Tom McKillop, chief executive of one of the region's biggest employers, AstraZeneca.

The conference is the latest in a series of high-profile events in Manchester to address the role of the city in driving forward innovation. The region has an historic reputation for science and technology and there are currently almost 300,000 people employed in the sector across the north west.

Greater Manchester has also been the home of some of the nation's leading inventors. They include Francis Egerton, who built the world's first man-made waterway, the Bridgewater Canal, between Worsley and Castlefield, Charles Mackintosh, inventor of the waterproof raincoat, and Frederick Henry Royce, who built his first Rolls Royce motorcar in a workshop in Hulme.

Later this month, Manchester University will find out if it has scooped a science and innovation awards worth millions of pounds. The institution is one of 25 universities shortlisted for three multi- million pound grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.